This course is a second semester exploration of the interaction between humans and computers. We will explore the intersection of issues including: user interface, software design, effective communication, Web 2.0 technologies, technological innovation, online community, gaming, new media, identity, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, school reform, psychology, sociology and anthropology,

Students will engage in two collaborative design projects to be defined during the semester. The first smaller project involves the invention of a hypothetical technological system "from the future." The second larger project involves the creation of a commercial-caliber software project leveraging Web 2.0 technologies. This second project will be started during the November face-to-face meeting.

The class will rely heavily on asynchronous communication with synchronous discussions scheduled as necessary. Office hours are available at any time by appointment. Simply send a request via email.

TEXTS

1) Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop -- from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication by Neil Gershenfeld

2) Computers as Theatre by Brenda Laurel

3) Select One from the following by Sherry Turkle:

• The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (classic about learning, self and tech)
• Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (Internet-related)
  
• Evocative Objects: Things We Think With (identity and objects)
  
• The Inner History of Devices (coming in October, but is fascinating and may be chosen)

4) Choose One from the following (both are fantastic):

• The New Media Reader by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort
• The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman

Optional books:

• The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within, Second Edition by Edward R. Tufte.
• Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices (VOICES) by Dan Saffer
• Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge
• The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid
• Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson.

You should assume that all coursework and communication is public and archived. Act accordingly.

Any work you produce in this class should reflect the fact you are a candidate for a doctoral degree and be ready for publication outside of the university. If it is not your best work, do not submit it.

The dominant form of communication in this course will be asynchronous. We will use the Google Group as our discussion forum constantly. While I would not recommend that you post yes, ditto... as a response to every message, I do expect that you will maintain a presence in key discussions. Post when you have a question or something to say, but without some artifacts of your thinking (e.g... a message in the Google Group) it is impossible for me to gauge you participation.

I expect frank, thoughtful and polite exchanges in the Google Group and TI (or other synchronous environments). The discussions may get a bit heated and that is fine, but we must strive to maintain civility. If you disagree with a point made by me or a classmate, speak up! Your personal opinions are much more valuable when supported by evidence or citations from the work of others. Hunches, intuition and feelings are welcome too, but must be labeled as such. Thinking out-loud is a good learning strategy in a community of practice. I will work hard to inspire you to make your thinking public. I expect deliberate thought, cheerful participation and a willingness to try new things.

My 26 years of experience in this field and slightly askew world-view often lead me to ask provocative questions and challenge you to support your thinking. This should be viewed in the spirit in which is offered, to help you learn, think about thinking and grow as a professional. There may be perspectives offered that never occurred to you. I was recently asked, "do you play devil's advocate online?" My short answer is, "No. I don't play rhetorical games." When I say something that seems outrageous, it's probably an idea I have struggled with for a long time. Take a moment to consider what I said. If I do play devil's advocate, I will announce it. I will do my best to make my thinking transparent.

Many years ago, a colleague announced that "This is not a cocktail party. All of your postings need to be pithy, scholarly and purposeful." In other words, the Google Group does not belong to all of us and this is School (the capital is for emphasis). My response to her was, "Apparently you don't go to cocktail parties with smart people." Parties and all sorts of other casual events offer wonderful contexts for learning. Feel free to share good and bad news, interesting information found online and other trivia (in moderation) in the Google Group. This is the glue that binds our community. If it takes too long to read every posting, just skim the unimportant ones. Do not impeded the rights of others to express themselves.

You might imagine the Google Group as a book club in which you are expected to share thoughts, questions and topics of discussion inspired by the assigned books and articles. You do not need the professor to initiate such discussions!

Know that I read EVERY posting even if I don't respond to each of them. Sometimes I want to leave some wait time for you to talk before I weigh-in. I often ask more Socratic questions and will try and remember to respond to everyone on a regular basis so you know that I'm engaging with your contributions. Just remember that I'm reading everything.

This class requires active participation through collaboration, discussion, design, research and development. Any work you produce should provide evidence of participation in the intellectual life of the course.

I'm passionate about the issues in this course, including: creating more productive contexts for learning; offering greater learning opportunities for all; cutting through the polarization of education; the unprecedented ways in which technology can enhance learning; community of practice and creativity. I do not mess around when issues may affect the welfare of children. I neither care nor expect you to agree with me on every issue. I do expect you to speak up when you disagree. My feelings will only be hurt (and your participation evaluated) when you fail to make your voice heard.

One of my primary goals is to help you refine what you think so you may effectively articulate your beliefs and experience in more precise language.

We will use Tapped-In throughout the course, but not as often as Google Groups. You will receive notice of a few days to a week before a TI session and they will always be on the scheduled night for this course.

The class should also make an attempt to share annotated bookmarks.

I read and respond to email quickly. Since I travel a great deal email is the best way to communicate with me. You may also call in an emergency.

• 50% participation (discussion of reading, sharing resources, peer mentorning)

• 10% collaborative invention project

• 30% collaborative software design project

• 10% written evidence of New Media or Game Design readings

Participation is the major activity in this course. Candor, honesty and insight are appreciated nearly as much as humor.

This class requires active participation through collaboration, discussion, design, research and development. Any work you produce should provide evidence of participation in the intellectual life of the course.

Participation includes posting, online class participation, homework, readings and reflective practice. Students are strongly advised to read educational journals, books, computing magazines, and any trade publications that would enhance their understanding of education, educational computing and school design. Such information makes a welcome contribution to the learning environment and student projects.

Participation includes attendance in synchronous sessions, sharing ideas in the Google Group, cooperation, and the quality of effort expressed in our learning adventures.

All students are required to share ideas and skills with their classmates and to expand their own personal knowledge in ways beneficial to their classmates. Simply put, you need to learn whatever is necessary to support the learning and growth of your peers. Students are expected to not only complete all individual and collaborative tasks, but be active discussants.

Highly successful students are distinguished by vigorous participation, in the Google Group and synchronous (Tapped-In) participation, homework and assigned readings. Students are strongly advised to read educational journals, books, computing magazines, and any trade publications that would enhance their understanding of education and educational computing. Such information makes a welcome contribution to classroom and online dialogue.

A Rubric

I have strong reservations about both grades and rubrics. I believe that both practices have a prophylactic effect on learning. Doing the best job you can do and sharing your knowledge with others are the paramount goals for this course. I expect excellence.

Therefore, I am trying a new experiment this term. You should evaluate each course artifact you create according to the following “rubric.” The progression denotes a range from the least personal growth to the most.

1. I did not participate

2. I phoned-it in

3. I impressed by colleagues

4. I impressed my friends and neighbors

5. I impressed my children

6. I impressed Gary

7. I impressed myself

We will discuss whether this reflective self-assessment should be shared publicly or just with the professor.

Average work will receive a B. This includes meeting the minimal requirements for each assignment and regular class participation. Exceptional work will earn an A and work failing to meet Pepperdine's requirements for graduate level quality will receive a lower grade. Enthusiasm, risk-taking, questioning curiosity, creativity, sharing, mentoring, ingenuity and imagination are qualities often exhibited in A caliber work.

Students who earn As should be able to...

1. Understand the distinction between instruction and construction in light of theories by Dewey, Papert, Turkle, Laurel, Lave, Wenger, Vygotsky and others

2. Appreciate the context(s) in which such theories succeed or fail

3. Reflect on personal learning while constructing personally expressive and intellectually challenging computer-based projects

4. Produce evidence of ingenuity, critical thinking, creativity and scholarship

5. Demonstrate the acquisition of new technological fluency

6. Make connections between information garnered in your classes and the course activities

7. Learn to use new software

8. Create a digital portfolio of work (via the web) designed to serve as a permanent exhibit of your work and learning in this course

9. Support the work of classmates and participate in all collaborative project work

10. Inspire the thinking, learning and doing of their classmates and the professor

Students are expected to check their email and class Google Group every day in order to keep up-to-date with class assignments, discussions and news.

1.We are all WiReD...
We all have an Internet e-mail account and will read our email/Google Groups regularly. Students are expected to share resources and raise topics for discussion as well.

2. We assume responsibility for our own learning...

• We will track our own progress and meet assignment deadlines

• We will welcome new ideas and suggestions

• We will take risks and try new things

• We will plan ahead

• We will be flexible

3. We are ethical and moral individuals...

• We do not plagiarize others work.

• We do not pirate software you have not paid for and do not own.

4. The best way to learn it is to live it...

Students will seek and indulge in relevant experiences. People who rely upon just passively sitting in class (or online) will shortchange their learning and grades.

5. Part of living it is reflecting about it with others...

• Don t expect to learn much alone.

• Experience teaches through accumulation of insights. Insights are acquired from reflection on experiences.

• You are expected to share resources and articles that may be of interest to others.

6. We will ask three before me (Gary). Students should ask questions of classmates, peers and use other resources before automatically asking the teacher for help.

7. We will read manuals and software menus for information.

8. We will not whine.

Class dates will be more fluid than in other classes, but there will be a reading sequence in the course syllabus. This will NOT be like any other class you have ever had. We will talk a lot, do things and take some risks. This will have an impact on our course sequence and schedule. My job is not to dispense knowledge in predetermined chunks at specified intervals.

The reading of additional articles will be assigned as necessary. Articles without links will be placed in the Google Group.

Reading assignments should be read & discussed beginning with the date listed.

September 1-7 - Read and discuss the following ice-breakers in the Google Group forum:

1. http://www.stager.org/omaet2003/maze.pdf

2. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.06/wolfram_pr.html

3. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.03/kingdoms_pr.html

September 8 - Read first half of Fab

September 15 - Finish reading Fab

September 22 - Read first third of Computers as Theatre

September 29 - Read second third of Computers as Theatre

Week of October 6 - First collaborative project outlined

October 26 - First collaborative project due to be completed and posted online

October and most of November will be spent reading and discussing assigned articles and articles selected by each student from either The New Media Reader or The Game Design Reader (students will be asked to read one additional article from major book sections)

November 3 - Major software development project brief shared

November 8 - Face-to-face meeting in San Diego

November 24 - Read first third of Turkle book

December 1 - Read second third of Turkle book

December 8 - Complete Turkle book

Learning adventures, TI schedules and other articles will be assigned.

MAINTAINING COPIES OF ASSIGNED COURSE WORK FOR PROGRAM EVALUATION:  The Graduate School of Education and Psychology evaluates its programs on an ongoing basis.  The data from such evaluations provide us with information to help improve the quality of the educational experience we provide our students.  In addition, the data are used by our accrediting bodies, such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). California Council on Teacher Credentials, and the American Psychological Association (APA), to make decisions as to whether we can maintain our accredited status with these respective associations.  To this end, we may archive copies of the papers, examinations, exercises, etc. that students complete as part of their required course work so that we can track if students appear to be meeting the objectives of the program in which they are enrolled.  Names will be removed from the assignments we opt to archive for evaluation purposes.  If you prefer that your course work not be archived for evaluation purposes, please let me know immediately so that I can make such a notation in the files I keep for each student who enrolls in my courses.

CODE OF CONDUCT:  The Graduate School of Education and Psychology strives to create a learning environment which is respectful of the rights and dignity of all members of our learning community. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a collegial, respectful, and professional manner while participating in all activities associated with this course. Students are expected to exhibit behaviors and attitudes consistent with appropriate ethical-legal standards, and to refrain from any fraudulent, dishonest, or harmful behaviors such as plagiarism, cheating, or harassment, which compromise the integrity of the academic standards of the university and/or impact the safety and security of fellow students, staff, and faculty. Failure to comply with appropriate standards of conduct may result in a grade of “F” in the course and dismissal from the program.

PLAGIARISM:  Plagiarism is commonly understood in the academic community to involve taking the ideas or words of another and passing them off as one’s own.  When paraphrasing or quoting an author directly, one must credit the source appropriately.  Plagiarism is not tolerated at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

DISABILITY STATEMENT:  Any student with a documented disability (physical, learning, or psychological) needing academic accommodations should contact the Disability Services Office (Malibu Campus, Tyler Campus Center 225, 310.506.6500) as early in the semester as possible.  All discussions will remain confidential.  Please visit http://www.pepperdine.edu/disabilityservices/ for additional information.